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Sharks set team record with victory over Flames

THORNTON GETS 90TH ASSIST, HELPS S.J. REACH 106 POINTS

By Victor ChiMercury News

Posted:
04/06/2007 01:41:07 AM PDT

Updated:
04/06/2007 11:43:57 AM PDT

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The San Jose Sharks' Matt Carle, center and Joe Thornton, right, move to embrace Milan Michalek after his goal against the Calvary Flames in the 2nd period at HP Pavilion Thursday, April 5, 2007. (Patrick Tehan/Mercury News)

The Sharks continued to defy the fatigue factor Thursday by outlasting Calgary for a history-making 4-3 victory at HP Pavilion.

The Sharks established a franchise record with 106 points. The previous mark was 104, set in 2003-04.

Joe Thornton recorded two assists to become just the third player in NHL history to record consecutive 90-assist seasons. Wayne Gretzky (1980-81 through 1991-92) and Mario Lemieux (1987-88 and 1988-89) are the others.

"I've got a lot of good players to pass the puck to; that's all that means," said Thornton, who led the league last season with 96 assists. "It's just playing with good players. You don't think about getting 90 assists a year. It just kind of comes. You just have to play with the right people."

Milan Michalek, Mark Bell, Mike Grier and Jonathan Cheechoo supplied the goals for the Sharks, who outshot the Flames 42-32.

The manner in which the Sharks won was doubly impressive. Their tank couldn't have been full after a high-energy shootout win Wednesday at Anaheim. Plus Calgary was desperate, needing a victory to secure the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"I was so proud of our team in how we played," said Coach Ron Wilson, whose club improved to 10-2 in the back end of games on consecutive nights. "We expected them to come at us hard early, and I think we actually came out on top in physicality.

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That's the kind of game I want some of our younger guys to experience right now, because I want them to learn that if we want to win the Cup, those are the kinds of games you can expect, especially in the Western Conference."

Defenseman Scott Hannan said: "We've got a lot of big, strong guys. We used that tonight. We didn't shy away at all. We were smacking them just as much, if not more, than they were smacking us."

Cheechoo and Grier scored early in the third period to build a 4-1 lead. But Flames captain Jarome Iginla scored twice to cut the Sharks' lead to 4-3 with 4 1/2 minutes left.

"Playing back-to-back nights takes a lot out of you," Thornton said. "A game like tonight was encouraging. Obviously we kind of let them back in the game, but I thought for having played at Anaheim and again here tonight, this was a great game for us.

"Two playoff-type games and it's just getting us geared up. We're getting comfortable playing those one-goal games and two-goal games. Just a good sign we're playing that kind of hockey right now."

There are still multiple playoff scenarios alive, but the Sharks cannot face Detroit in the first round. The Red Wings can finish only first or second in the conference, which would mean a matchup against the seventh or eighth seed. The Sharks can finish no lower than sixth.

The Sharks can also win the Pacific Division if they beat Vancouver on Saturday in the season finale and Anaheim loses its remaining games at Dallas and Columbus.

Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov started for the second consecutive night, even though he had a sizable workload - 37 saves and plenty of jostling - Wednesday in the shootout victory at Anaheim. Wilson had also mentioned earlier in the week that his plan was to split the goaltending assignments between Nabokov and Vesa Toskala against the Ducks and Flames.

This could indicate that Toskala might still be nursing the groin injury that kept him out for four weeks in February and March. Of course, teams aren't always forthcoming with bona fide injury reports at this point of the season.

Wilson cited Nabokov's hot streak as the reason for going with him again.